Tea (unsweet, no ice) - Printable Version

The pair listened, nibbling and sipping politely as they did. It seemed, now, a proper little dinner party: tea and food, and of course, conversation.

Algol offered a tip of his head--nothing more, so as not to interrupt--at the mention of the flask. But when Forgraves called himself 'not bright,' the Blacksmith gently interjected. "You are perfectly... 'bright,' Forgraves... do not sell yourself... too short." -Was this the second time he'd said as much? He couldn't remember--but the fox seemed to have such a strangely low opinion of himself-! "In any case... you will have much to experiment with... even with these... leaves, alone." He gestured to the seedlings. "Green tea... black tea... herbal and light, or... very strong, and dark... it is only a matter... of how old the leaves and... how they are treated. Perhaps you will find... a new type of tea... from them." There: lesson imparted. Experiments could abound!

Both heads swung quizzically toward Banshee, but it was the Collector who broke the short silence. "A safer way of what... may I ask? Testing teas-?" He sounded confused, at best, and the fact that the Blacksmith did nothing to clarify seemed to indicate that he, too, did not quite understand--not the reason for Banshy's upset, nor the meaning of their question.

A culture clash, perhaps?

Forgraves seemed slightly caught off guard by the praise, he doesn't think he's had many people call him bright, let alone reassure him of such when he would claim otherwise, but its a nice, warm feeling in response all the same, a thankful smile.

"I'm quite excited, I haven't often given plants much time to grow on their own, yknow? bebby usually grows them with her magic when we're low, mostly because she's impatient. could be quite a fun venture, actually caring for a plant on its own without it." he said, tail wagging. he'd been needing something to do anyway, right? the tea plants alongside the bonsai could give him the rest from daily stress he needed.

he took a few bites from his kebab, ears flicking at Algol's confusion. "Oh, ignore him. i believe he's asking about how YOU lot came to discover tea, if you knew about it before we did. as for the safer comment? I don't use magic, so i was going for a more natural way of healing, salves and the like! he explained, "I didn't ingest any poison, but because i didn't know what any of the colors meant, if i wanted to figure out what different salves did i of course had to test them. i believe ive categorized all the colors meanings by now, but i think banshy is being a worry wort for nothing. I'm not dead, it hasn't killed me!"

he briefly remembers the leopard seal attack.

"..well. yet." he said, Banshy glaring at him.

"Speech." Thoughts.

The Collector sighed, rolling his eyes beneath the hood at Banshy's words. "Oh, come now; it was hardly random. I did warn him that black liquids would be poisonous," he pointed out. Then, memory seemed to struck him, and he laughed. "He screamed for hours, you know," he near-hissed, and then--as if remembering himself--glanced sharply to Banshy. "Ahhh--not Forgraves, never fear. Ahem. I got lost in a pleasant memory."

"...Algol," the Blacksmith said, quietly but with reproach.

The Collector sighed and waved a hand, and looked to the two. "My apologies. To answer your question, we have always had tea. It existed before us, and like many things, it was never lost to us."

The Blacksmith cleared his throat, sitting with cup held steaming between his hands, and picked up where Algol had halted. "Many things, such as... a writing system. Tea, and... certain foods, other drinks. Technology-"

"I TRIED to give them that!" the Collector interrupted abruptly, sitting forward sharply as if only just remembering, and protesting the point. "I gave it all to them! The knowledge of salt, and clay; water transport and the very wheel; how to make cloth, popcorn, Persei--even, yes, HOW TO MAKE TEA!" He flailed, then dropped his hands with a deep sigh. "I do not know how you have the patience for them! All of it was lost, mere hours after it was shared. A waste of--what are you doing." He asked this flatly, crimson eyes shooting to the Blacksmith's hand, which had reached over to pat his own; and the Blacksmith was gazing at him with clear appreciation and warmth.

"I knew you... had it in you," he murmured.

"Persei-..." Algol's tone was irritated, exasperated.

"You did something... good, for them! How... wonderful," he beamed.

Algol sighed, leaning back with a scowl. He drank his tea, and by the looks of things, it was to avoid giving voice to his dour thoughts.

The Blacksmith looked to Forgraves. "Ours was... an older society. All that was lost... to time... your people have... had to rediscover. Much of it... from nothing. It is... admirable, how resourceful... you have all proven, in... our absence."

It was a compliment, kindly given.

"See, Banshy? All is well."

he sipped his tea for a moment longer during the silence, looking up to meet Algol's eyes at his laughter. he seemed confused.

"who-?"

His ears dropped. master Aquarian.
He looked away, briefly terrified, something akin to realization dawning on his face. oh stars, what HAD he done that day?? screaming? for HOURS?!?

he looked back up after a bit of mildly horrified self reflection, nervous, to listen to the rest of the explanation. eventually the worry melted away into fascination, however.

"master Astraea taught a handful of gembound how to write, i attended the class!" he said, only kind of interuppting Persei. he jumped backward at the Collectors own interupption though.

he listened, half amused at his rant. truly, he didn't seem the type to give such things away without a mentioned cost, but of course he had his "contractual obligations" or whatever he said earlier. though from the way persei looked at him he had a feeling that was almost exactly it.

he smiled brightly. "I've only read about some of those things, the clay thing was a lucky find on my part, that library is huge! but i'm sure i could try and find those you taught, if you weren't willing to teach it again. i'd so love to learn! " he said, curiosity glinting in his eye. "Cloth has always been one i've been particularly intrigued by." he hummed.

he turned to persei once again. "I have to admit, most of what i knew going into building my home was taught to me by other gembound. although the idea of sanctuary for others was abandoned by the rest of the group, we had been taught briefly how to build houses, huts, by a girl who visited to teach us just that. if it weren't for the fact she was willing to share her knowledge, i doubt any of us would've gotten very far with the idea. I simply had an easier time digging than i did building." he explained. "if it could be done once, it can be done again, right?"

"Speech." Thoughts.

The Collector was about to answer that brief 'why' when he saw it the answer dawn on Forgraves. No need, then, to remind him...

They both listened, the Blacksmith nodding with approval at the mention of Astraea teaching reading. "That knowledge opens... many doors," he murmured, sipping tea.

The Collector sipped, too. "It is not a matter of being willing to teach. I gave them knowledge--diagrams, schematics. I suppose I wished to see if they'd share it among themselves. I certainly expected them to," he added, sourly. "I expected tradesmen to crop up, trade and trade routes to begin to flourish... the real beginnings of a civilization." He almost sounded mournful at this--or at the very least, wistful. "But on they went, scrabbling at dirt and eating raw mice. Ahh, well--oh. My point was that I did not bear this knowledge myself. It was composed of texts and so on, not taught by me, and now whoever took each piece, well--they still have it, I suppose."

"I am certain... the library may... have what you seek. But be... respectful, to those within... its halls." The Blacksmith's warning came soft, though likely not needed--Forgraves was hardly the rude or pushy sort, after all. He looked to Banshy, curious. "I am sorry, but... did you say that... Forgraves told you of... the magic, I wish to teach you..?" He glanced to Forgraves then, wondering--was Banshy one of those who would be present?

And he glanced around, curious--wondering what this family would do if given the support they needed to make the home--or village, or even city--of their dreams.

Forgraves nodded. "of course! i try to be whenever i visit, they've already been so welcoming, it'd be rude to stop now."

he hummed, seeming perfectly content all things considered, a bit lost in his thoughts, before he positively lit up at persei's question.

he seemed to bounce in place and banshy opened the floor to him, giggling with joy. "Hold on, hold on!! i'll tell you all about it!!" he said, getting up from his seat and running off into the next room.

he didn't come out for several moments, but when he did he was holding what looked to be a notebook, pages aged and dusty, but covered in dark ink. "I've been thinking about it nonstop, and alongside planning for the dinner and making you two gifts, which you will get before you leave-" he said, smiling proudly at that before continuing, "i've been planning this!"

he sat back down and, moving his food to the side, he placed the notebook down and turned it their direction, pointing at the pages and flipping them occasionally as he talked.

"I was already planning on expanding the den, but the people here would need their own space too, right? i've been thinking of what kind of adjustments they would need, someone with hooves or paws wouldn't be able to use the same ammenities as someone with hands, right? so they would need a den that was built accordingly, shelves and storage and whatnot would need to account for that, especially for size, someone the size of a rat wouldn't be able to reach something ten times taller than them." he rambled, pointing at what looked like sketches on the pages, some of them with notes aside them. one labeled "genevive" had notes surrounding a den that seemed open plan and easy to leave, the doorway covered in vines rather than a wooden door. some of the notes said things like "account for horns", or "handles for teeth", etc.

"But, and heres the exciting part, the group that i mentioned? i realized, if i was already going to be building more dens, why not do that again? dens are easier to dig out than huts are to build, many of the creatures in these caves unable to reasonably gather and put together the materials required with the anatomy they have. these hills are large and long, and if we're careful we could likely dig out enough for more gembound that just my family to live in!" he chirped, motioning to more sketches with more notes, unfolding a series of glued together pages that unraveled to reveal a long yet simple sketch of the line of hills forgraves den was built in, making notes about the trees in the area, ways to connect them to dens and some notes even speculating about ways to create walkways, paths and ladders from tree to tree to connect the group further.

"I plan to, before you arrive, send Bebby and Tori out to recruit, to find people who need a place like this where it's safe, so we can all look out for eachother! grown food, collective hunting, i can teach those who don't already know and wish to learn how to read and write, those who can how to make things out of clay and how to cook, all sorts of things like this!" he continued, out of breath and raspy as his throat dried, the pages full of sketches of gardens and such, some testing with the idea of fencing, and a series of notes on one page without a sketch about digging a water source connected to the caves river, so it wouldn't be so hard to travel that far just to get water for the whole group.

the writing would become harder to read as he, seemingly, got more excited as he wrote it down or maybe even lost sleep and eventually passed out.

"This magic will hopefully give us the means to do this, or atleast get a start on it. some of the more complex ideas will hopefully become easier when we have more people to help." he said. and then gasping for air and rushing to his tea cup, parched.

he sighed. looking up, not a hint of embarassment on his features for once after so much talking, he smiled. "What do you think?"

he was asking both of them, eyes flicking between the two.

"Speech." Thoughts.